Utility suites were more appealing when Windows included fewer safety and maintenance features than it does now, but all three currently available suites are worth considering if you want an all-in-one toolkit handy for maintenance and cleanup. All include antivirus as well, but they're not full-blown Internet security suites. As the market for utility suites has waned, vendors have been sluggish in updating them. None supports the Firefox browser, for example, although all include Internet cleanup features.

iolo System Mechanic 5 Professional

If you can stand the blood-red-and-heavy-metal interface, occasional crashes, and a few other rough edges, iolo System Mechanic 5 Professional ($69.95 direct) will reward you with up-to-date features that you won't find in the others, such as start-upprogram control and antispyware. The suite's many features include a firewall, antivirus, deleted-file recovery, disk and memory defragmenters, Internet-connection optimizations, and Internet trace cleaners.

System Mechanic's most effective modules are its junk-file remover, a secure file-deleter, a powerful Registry cleaner, and an Internet-connection tweaker that makes changes automatically and allows expert-level tweaking. The deleted-file finder recovered files that the rival packages missed, although it displayed obscure error messages in the process (for a review of iolo's Search and Recover, see page 94). An optional toolbar for quick access to suite functions crashed when we first launched it, but worked correctly afterward. The antivirus and firewall modules are licensed from Kaspersky Labs.

When we first ran the disk defragmenter, it displayed an alarming message suggesting that our hard drive might be physically damaged, but no message appeared on a second run, and tests proved there was no damage. The installation CD isn't bootable and the program can't create an emergency boot CD. (iolo technologies LLC, www.iolo.com)

Norton SystemWorks 2005 Premier

Norton SystemWorks 2005 Premier ($99.95 direct) is both the most up-to-date utility suite here and the most archaic. Its up-to-date features include an emergency boot disc that can access any hardware your Windows system can, and can check for viruses or disk errors without loading your existing system. But Norton CleanSweep, also included, stopped being useful in the Windows 98 era.

Other up-to-date features include full copies of Norton AntiVirus and Norton Ghost 9.0, which can back up a Windows drive while Windows is running. It also includes CheckIt Diagnostics for hardware and the systemwide-undo program Norton GoBack. The superb new System Optimizer gives one-stop control over dozens of Windows interface and security settings. Also included are the classic, powerful Norton Disk Doctor for directory repairs and the clumsy, confusing Norton WinDoctor for Windows Registry problems.

Look beneath the low-key interface on SystemSuite 5 ($59.99 direct) and you'll find many powerful tools, some new, some rusty. The package includes the modern, high-powered Trend antivirus and Sygate firewall, plus an extensive set of drive and Registry cleanup and maintenance modules, together with a customizable one-button automated maintenance option.

Many of the package's tools work well on modern (Windows 2000 and XP) systemsnotably the Registry cleaner and highly customizable Internet cleanup modulebut the suite as a whole is actually better suited to Windows 98 and Me systems. It ships on a bootable emergency CD and can create a rescue floppy disk, but the tools on these bootable disks work only on old-style FAT and FAT32 partitions, not on NTFS, used by most Windows 2000 and XP PCs.

One of the most useful modules is the Registry cleaner (run it twice). Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated to stop it from prompting you to remove an unremovable Registry key found on systems with Windows Media Player 10. An optional Deleted Files Bin stores files removed from the Windows Recycle Bin, but it changes their names, so you'll have to guess which one you want. The hardware diagnostics utility seems designed for 1990s hardware, and produced some false positives on the modem and graphics card in our test system. (Avanquest Publishing USA Inc., www.v-com.com)